FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Maggie Estes, Director of Marketing and Public Relations
mestes@cliburn.org, 817.738.6536 (o), 817, 739, 0459 (c)
Fort Worth, Texas, April 19, 2012--In honor of its yearlong 50th
Anniversary celebration, the Van Cliburn Foundation will host a
special concert featuring International Piano Competition for
Outstanding Amateurs winners Michael Hawley (2002, First Prize),
Drew Mays (2007, First Prize), Christopher Shih (2011, First
Prize), and Clark Griffith (2011, Second Prize), on Saturday, April
28, 2012, at 2 p.m. at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth (3200
Darnell Street, Fort Worth, Texas). This event is free and open to
the public with no tickets required. For more information, patrons
can contact the Van Cliburn Foundation at 817.738.6536 or visit
www.Cliburn.org.
The International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs was
inaugurated in 1999, and was the first of its kind in the United
States. Established at the encouragement of Nela Rubinstein, late
wife of pianist Artur Rubinstein, the contest highlights the
importance of music-making in everyday life and provides a forum
for musicians age 35 and older who do not derive their primary
source of income from the performance or instruction of the piano.
The weeklong competition brings together 70 of the finest amateur
pianists from around the world for seven days of performances,
symposia, and social events. The next International Piano
Competition for Outstanding Amateurs will be held in May
2015.
Michael Hawley
Michael Hawley is an educator, artist, and researcher working in
the field of digital technology. A former professor at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dr. Hawley held the
Alexander W. Dreyfoos chair of the MIT Media Lab. His industrial
career has included work in computer music (IRCAM, under Pierre
Boulez); in digital cinema (Lucasfilm, under George Lucas); and in
personal computing (NeXT, with Steve Jobs). He has led scientific
expeditionary projects in Iceland, Norway, Bhutan, and Mount
Everest, among other places, and is the author and principle
photographer of Bhutan: A Visual Odyssey Across the Last Himalayan
Kingdom. Currently, Dr. Hawley serves as the director of the annual
EG Conference, and as a director on various corporate and nonprofit
boards.
As a pianist, Dr. Hawley studied with John Quinn, Earl Wild, Ward
Davenny, Claude Frank, and David Deveau. He has made concerto
appearances in Boston, New Jersey, and Texas. An avid soloist, Dr.
Hawley has given numerous recitals and is an enthusiastic chamber
music performer. He and his wife reside in a refurbished church in
Cambridge, Massachusetts, with their Bhutanese dog, Tashi, and a
pair of concert grand pianos.
Drew Mays
Drew Mays studied piano primarily with Amanda Penick at the
University of Alabama. As a graduate student, he pursued advanced
musical degrees at both the Manhattan School of Music and at the
Conservatory for Music in Hanover, Germany. Following his musical
endeavors, Dr. Mays attended medical school, receiving his M.D. in
1991. He served his residency in ophthalmology at the University of
Alabama in Birmingham and held a glaucoma fellowship at the
University of Florida.
After a 15-year absence from music, Dr. Mays returned to the piano
and competed in the 2006 Rocky Mountain amateur competition,
winning Second Prize. In 2007, Dr. Mays competed in the fifth
International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs, where he
was awarded the Richard Rodzinski First Prize. He and his wife
Therese reside in Birmingham, Alabama, with their four children.
Dr. Mays continues his studies with Amanda Penick.
Christopher Shih
Physician and pianist Christopher Shih has performed in major
venues in over a dozen countries around the globe. He has appeared
as a soloist with numerous orchestras, including repeat engagements
with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center. Dr.
Shih is the first-prize winner of four international amateur piano
competitions: the sixth International Piano Competition for
Outstanding Amateurs in Fort Worth, Texas (2011); the Concours
International de Grands Amateurs de Piano in Paris, France (2008);
the Boston International Piano Competition for Exceptional Amateurs
(2007); and the Washington International Piano Amateurs Competition
in Washington, D.C. (2006).
Dr. Shih is a board-certified gastroenterologist with the Maryland
Digestive Disease Center. He received his B.A. from Harvard
University and his M.D. from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.
He is active in clinical research and community and charitable
services and is a Fellow of the American College of
Gastroenterology. He frequently collaborates with his wife, who is
a violinist on faculty at the Peabody Preparatory Institute in
Baltimore, Maryland.
Clark Griffith
Clark Griffith has been employed variously through the years as a
programmer, Web site developer, classical radio announcer,
orchestral pianist, and freelance accompanist. His past teachers
have included Eugene and Elizabeth Pridonoff, Vladimir Sokoloff,
Annie Petit, and 1977 Cliburn Gold Medalist Steven De Groote. Mr.
Griffith earned his B.M. in composition from the Curtis Institute
of Music.
After moving to Fort Worth in 2003 and listening to radio segments
from the 2004 International Piano Competition for Outstanding
Amateurs, Mr. Griffith entered the 2007 contest and subsequently
won Third Prize. In 2010, he made his theatrical debut as the
onstage pianist in Moisés Kaufman's 33 Variations at Theatre Three
in Dallas. Shortly thereafter, he recorded Kurt Weill's September
Song for a History Channel documentary. Mr. Griffith returned to
compete in the sixth International Piano Competition for
Outstanding Amateurs in 2011, winning Second Prize and three
auxiliary awards. He is also an enthusiastic participant in the
monthly meetings of the DFW Amateur Pianists.
The complete program will include:
Michael
Hawley
GODOWSKY
Renaissance
Sarabande in E major (after Jean-Philippe Rameau)
Sarabande in E minor (after Jean-Baptiste Lully)
BACH-RACHMANINOFF
"Gavotte" from Suite from Partita in E major for
Violin
BACH
Prelude and Fugue No. 5 in D Major, BWV 874 from
Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II
BACH-HAWLEY
Fugue for Organ in G Major, BWV 577 "Gigue"
Drew
Mays
BEETHOVEN
Sonata No. 31 in A-flat Major, Op. 110
Christopher Shih & Clark Griffith
SAINT-SAËNS
Carnival of the Animals
ABOUT THE VAN CLIBURN FOUNDATION
The Van Cliburn Foundation disseminates classical music worldwide,
and nurtures and launches young artists' careers through the
quadrennial Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, the
ensuing three-year international concert tour of its medalists,
award-winning documentaries, radio broadcasts, and a live webcast
that extends its outreach to listeners around the world. In 2009,
over 2,857,573 streams were delivered to viewers from 157
countries/territories.
The Fourteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition will
take place May 24-June 9, 2013, at Fort Worth's Bass Performance
Hall and will welcome 30 of the world's finest young pianists to
Texas. Continuing its longstanding commitment to new music, the
Cliburn has selected composer Christopher Theofanidis to write the
commissioned work that will be performed by all competitors during
the Semifinal Round. Additionally, the Cliburn has been dedicated
to showcasing both the extraordinary talent of its competitors in
recital performance as well as their ability to collaborate with
other musicians. The Fourteenth Competition will mark the first
Cliburn appearance by the renowned Brentano String Quartet
performing a piano quintet with each of the 12 semifinalists. The
Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, which has appeared at every Cliburn
Competition, will perform two concerti with each of the six
finalists, under the baton of Maestro Leonard Slatkin for the first
time. Maestro John Giordano will serve as the chairman of the jury
for his eleventh competition since assuming the post in 1973.
For audiences in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, the Van Cliburn
Foundation promotes great music and world-class artists through the
annual Cliburn Concerts series. It reaches 33,000 elementary school
students with the education programs of Musical Awakenings®. In
1999, it established the International Piano Competition for
Outstanding Amateurs™, which The Boston Globe proclaimed "a
celebration of music, and the people who have to make music, no
matter what." The sixth Amateur Competition was held May 23-29,
2011, at Ed Landreth Auditorium on the campus of TCU.
Visit Cliburn.org to learn more about the Cliburn during its 50th
Anniversary year.
Official Sponsor of the Van Cliburn Foundation are:
American Airlines
Amon G. Carter Foundation
Ann L. & Carol Green Rhodes Charitable Trust, Bank of America,
Trustee
Arts Council of Fort Worth & Tarrant County
BNSF Railway Foundation
Crystelle Waggoner Charitable Trust, Bank of America,
Trustee
ExxonMobil
Sid W. Richardson Foundation
The Burnett Foundation
XTO Energy
Exclusive Print Media Sponsor
Star-Telegram
Exclusive Radio Station
WRR 101.1 FM
